We are doing a lot of recombinant protein expression in our lab, and also doing phage display in a seperate room in another building.
Recently the phage are eating our E. coli in protein expression, sometimes 1-2 hours after 1:100 scaling up cultures, sometimes after inducing of the expression with IPTG.
We tried throwing away all possible contaminated IPTG, antibiotics, medium, plates, glycerol bacteria stocks. Regular treatment of any fluid produced in the expression with NaClO. Ultraviolet light open everynight. Clean benchtop wastes before leaving. Even strong oxidant fumigation can only give us a few days clean from phage. Then it will be back again.
We came to notice that the members doing phage display might inadvertently bringing phage to the protein lab, despite their best efforts to stay clear. But But even with their precautions, phage still happens.
Do you have any idea how should we get rid of this endless cyle of contamination and what kind of daily routine can help us keep clean?
The simplest solution is to use a strain that is resistant to the phage being used in the adjacent phage display lab. For example if they are using a filamentous phage like M13, those requires a male strain carrying F. So switching to a an F- strain would solve the problem. With other phages you can isolate resistant mutants in receptor proteins (LamB for lambda, TonA for T1, etc) and circumvent the problem. Either that or yell at the adjacent lab to clean up their act even more. But phage do get away pretty readily.
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